AEGEAN Expects Strong Travel Demand in 2023, Adds More Seats on International Flights

Photo source: AEGEAN

Greek airline company AEGEAN expects a positive year for travel in Greece this year on the back of a very strong performance in 2022.

According to the airline’s CEO, Dimitris Gerogiannis, the first indications for 2023 are particularly encouraging, with international traffic in the first two months and early ticket booking trends for the upcoming summer well above early 2022 but also versus the same period of pre-pandemic 2019.

2 million more seats for international network

AEGEAN plans to operate with 76 aircraft in 2023 and offer a total of 18 million available seats, of which 11 million seats in its international network.

“Two million more seats than in 2022 and 800,000 more than in 2019,” Gerogiannis said in a statement of the company’s financial results for 2022.

AEGEAN’s network this year will cover 46 countries, with 264 routes to 161 destinations out of 8 bases.

AEGEAN flew 12.5 million passengers in 2022

AEGEAN flight attendant. Photo source: AEGEAN

According to the company’s financial results for 2022, AEGEAN delivered a strong performance after two years of significant losses due to the Covid pandemic.

Consolidated revenue in 2022 reached 1.34 billion euros, 98 percent higher than 2021 and 2 percent more than 2019.

In 2022, the Group offered 15.8 million seats and carried 12.5 million passengers, 73 percent more than 2021, out of which 7.3 million traveled to/from international destinations.

Load factor in 2022 reached 79.8 percent significantly higher than 2021 (+ 14.3pp), remaining though below pre-pandemic levels due to the impact of Q1 and Q2 of the year. The contribution of the international network to Group’s revenues reached almost 80 percent in 2022.

“The result validates the effectiveness of our strategy, despite the challenging start of 2022 with the war in Ukraine and the increased jet fuel cost,” Gerogiannis said.

Investments

AEGEAN Airbus 321neo aircraft. Photo source: AEGEAN

AEGEAN’s CEO added that AEGEAN’s performance last year proves that its investment in upgrading fleet and services, unabated during the pandemic, has started to pay off in terms of improved competitiveness.

It is noted that on March 15 AEGEAN completed the repayment of the last part of the emergency loan it had received from the four major Greek banks during the pandemic, three years prior to the repayment deadline.

In terms of the company’s investments, they will amount to 120 million euros a year from 2023 and for the following years and concern both new neo aircraft, which will be added every year, and the new state-of-the-art technical base that the company started at Athens International Airport.

According to Gerogiannis, in this context and in order for AEGEAN to maintain sufficient capital reserves for the year as well, the company’s Board of Directors will not propose any dividend payout for the fourth consecutive year.

“As well as our capacity to buy-out the rights of the Hellenic Republic upon a potential exercise of their warrants,” Gerogiannis said.

AEGEAN in 2023 will take delivery of a further 9 new Airbus A320/321neo, part of the order of a total 46 neo aircraft by 2026. An additional 9 neo aircraft are expected to be delivered in 2024, another 5 in 2025 and the final 4 in 2026.